JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
1
tmarie
Well said Cleo. Kids having kids. This easily could have been prevented. Cue my usual comments are careless mothers, parenting and all that jazz. So sick and tired of reading stories like this.
What was she thinking?! Clearly she wasn't. Now, was this an accident or a mom with a plan?!
Posted in: Two sisters, aged 5 and 3, perish in Tokyo fire
-4
tmarie
And this is news because?! What would be news is if she decided to screw the pressure to get married, became a single mom and did actually continue to work. Add her to the long list of shotgun weddings and retiring. And later divorcing.
Posted in: Meisa Kuroki cancels appearance at March 4 event for fans
-4
tmarie
Another day in Japan, another dead kid. Infanticide has becomes problem - not that is wasn't traditionally - but in this day and age, there is not enough support for moms. And working moms at that. Hubby in Tokyo, her at her parents... Prob PPD and worried about the future and her job. Plenty of things could be a problem - were they trying to push her out at work? Was she pressured to have a kid? Would the company not relocate her so she could raise the baby with her husband...
I have more sympathy for an older, married working mom when this happens because I don't think it was her being selfish like some of the younger moms. I think she snapped. Japan really needs to start dealing with this as it needs all the babies it can get! High depression rate and many women will look at this and it'll scare them and make them rethink having a baby.
Posted in: Woman arrested over murder of 5-month-old son in Kobe
-1
tmarie
Probably?! So they still don't know?! Don't worry folks! All is well! Look the other way and ignore the incompetency...
Posted in: TEPCO blames high reactor temperature reading on broken thermometer
2
tmarie
Why can't the government release a budget for TEPCO so we can see where OUR money is going. Why are WE paying for this mess?! Why is this money not a loan?! Pathetic. The whole thing stinks. TEPCO continues to pay bonuses, the government guys get their cushy jobs after retiring and we're left with the cost and worry over our food, environment... Sick and twisted. I want TEPCO budgets made public.
Posted in: Gov't OKs further Y690 bil for TEPCO, but wants say in running utility
-1
tmarie
The whole hiring process here is pathetic. Black suit? Check. Black hair? Check. Minimal make up? Check. Practiced interview? Check. Paid cash to uni for job interview seminar? Check. Attended numerous job hunting fakes/seminars? Check. No idea what job you want to do but will kiss butt at the interview? Check. The whole process is silly and needs to be done away with. Just follow the script and hope you get picked. I have no idea how they decide who to hire when they all look the same, sound the same...
Posted in: Job interviews - 'Fools using a foolish method to pick fools'
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tmarie
Moms dies naturally, loser son wants her pension check... Make him pay it all back. Huge problem in Japan with not reporting deaths do family can collect pensions. You want the cash?! Show you're alive ever year. Failure to do that?! The checks stop.
Posted in: Man attempts suicide after police find mother's corpse hidden in vacuum bag
1
tmarie
Seems fair to me. Sixty kids being home stayed in a country with no flu?! Take all the precautions they want.
Posted in: NZ admits overreacting to flu scare on plane from Japan
-2
tmarie
She's already got drug and alcohol issues. Apple, tree... Whatever.
Posted in: Whitney Houston's daughter treated for stress at hospital
0
tmarie
I will! Thank you!!!
Posted in: More part-timers to become eligible for health insurance, pension programs
6
tmarie
and complain of the risk of accidents and crime associated with a large presence of young soldiers. The risks?? I am willing to bet that by the numbers, those Americans are better behaved and in less trouble on a whole that Okinawans are. This is a while "not in my backyard" issue.
Funny, Japan loved and celebrated these guys when it came to helping out just after 3/11. Japan wouldn't be what it is today without the US. They seem to forget this and complain about the country that propped them up and made them a world power. If they want to complain to anyone, complain to Tokyo, not those in Washington.
Posted in: Nago mayor, in U.S., steps up criticism of new Okinawa agreement
0
tmarie
What is that Cleo? I have heard that I should collect my final income/tax reciepts and take them into the tax office with my pension and health care payments and I should get a stalk of money back - going to do that this year. Same thing? I like extra things I can deduct! Thanks for the advice!!
Posted in: More part-timers to become eligible for health insurance, pension programs
5
tmarie
Sad, sad, sad day for Japan. Like I have asked many times, are foreigners exempt from this? If so, why? If no, why haven't any schools raised issues about it? My guess? Opens a whole can of worms that they know would get rid of the pathetic rule.
Nama, pathetic isn't it? You can sexually assault someone, harass someone, bully them... but be okay at work. Refuse to sing? You could lose your job.
Now, how is it possible to do this to teachers but yet, singing the damn thing everyday isn't a rule? Companies here don't sing, unis don't sing, shops don't sing... How on earth can they enforce it when those judges don't get up and sing it?
Posted in: Supreme Court rules making teachers sing 'Kimigayo' is constitutional
0
tmarie
I believe it is perfectly ok to receive compensation for something that has been taken away from you against your will and still complain about the fact that it has been taken away from you.
I can agree with that. However, the person complaining should be a little more honest and state they get compensation rather than making it seem they get nothing.
**I have described in former posts how the base economy prevents Okinawa from developing a healthy and sustainable economy. ** And I disagree with your line of thinking. I don't think Okinawa would be okay without the bases.
**Yubaru, I never knew the security of growing up on our family farm. My parents worked hard to put food on the table. We were forced to live under the flight path to Futenma, there was no place else to go. ** Oh boo hoo! Do you think your life would magically be better if you lived on the land? Doubt it. You were "forced" were you? Was it like NK where you HAD to live there? Or couldn't your parents have moved? Okinawa has lots of places to move to.
Yubaru, well my brother wants to be a farmer. Our land is not being used by the Americans. We do not want to rent our land. The amount of rent he gets stinks. So perhaps your bother could take the money he gets and buy some land somewhere else to farm? There are many places in Japan dying for farmers and the land is cheap. Guess its just easier to sit in Okinawa and complain about it though, eh? The amount of "rent he gets stinks". So you admit it is rent?
No, the base issue is the most pressing one as it hampers democracy and as such the solution of all other pressing problems in the prefecture. Solving the base issue isn't going to deal with the education and unemployment issues in Okinawa. Sorry but education is key. The bases aren't anywhere near as important as the crappy scores and lack of education Okinawa faces.
Posted in: Okinawa governor, Nago mayor not happy with U.S. forces plan
3
tmarie
**I can't agree with this.
My parents brought me up to be polite and courteous. I hate losing my temper and always want to keep my cool.
That's my standard and I will never change it for anyone.**
Sadly though, sometimes keeping your cool doesn't your broken thing fixed, your crap quality replaced... I don't enjoy but it seems that that is what you have to do sometimes to get the service you should have gotten in the first place. I worked in service for years and hate being the cow but if it means saving me 30,000 yen you're right the gloves are coming off.
Part ignorance and part racism but most of the time it is not with evil intentions, but sometimes we have to be careful when you have idiot drunk Japanese who start spewing evil, vile, racist rants. Ignorance is never a good excuse though. "Sorry officer, I didn't know drugs are illegal here" doesn't work in court. Nor should claiming that they didn't know touching my hair and face is rude.
What do people really want from their experience in Japan? Experience?? This isn't a ride or a trip to the zoo. Most of us on JT are lifers who just want to be left alone to get on with our lives, our jobs, our family like the locals do. We should suck up racism and discrimination? Would you tell a minority that "back home"? I sure as heck wouldn't.
**You also have the great privilige of living in a wonderful country, earn, for the most part, a decent living and have a rich and diverse experience. ** The "privilege"? Many of us would make the same or more at home, are well educated, much more than your average local, pay a lot more in taxes than your average local and would scoff at the claim of a "diverse experience" based on where we came from and have been.
I often wonder if these kinds of threads are a reaction by people from the mainstream middle class who are experiencing for the first time in their lives the experince of being treated as different. Kind of like an immigrant might in their own country..... Mainstream middle class folks don't often pick up and immigrant to a different country. Immigrants in our countries have laws to protect them from intolerance, racism and discrimination. We don't here. You need to stop thinking that some of us are here for a few years and will go home. I AM home. And would just like to be treated like everyone else. As I asked above, would you tell immigrants in your home country to suck it up? Would you tell them living in your country is a privilege? I would hope that you aren't that ignorant and can see the ignorance in your above post.
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
0
tmarie
Good point Sakula! None of mine would pay it for me even though I make over the given amount here at all three places I work. I assume their excuse would be that I work less than 30 hours a week with them.
Jforce companies here get away with it because people don't fight for what they are legally entitled to. I know four former hs teachers who got pushed out of their jobs when they became pregnant. Not one bothered to fight it. If more people would fight, Japan would be a much better place to work in. It's mendokusai so they don't bother. Sad, pathetic and just hurts us all in the end.
Posted in: More part-timers to become eligible for health insurance, pension programs
0
tmarie
Cleo, I think it is so they can make comments about how they've lowered the unemployment rate. This doesn't help anyone - and doesn't actually help them collect more money. Get those housewives OFF the 1.3 and make them pay for what they get!
Posted in: More part-timers to become eligible for health insurance, pension programs
0
tmarie
Tamanegi, I will say, snapping at them and being nasty like a locals does indeed get you what you want - I just wish I didn't have to go into my Osaka obachan character to get it done. Had a chat about this yesterday with a friend in Tokyo. She's Japanese and said the same thing. We don't like having to be a cow to the staff to get things done properly, but the way they train the staff here means that if something has gone wrong or there is a problem, the only way you get taken seriously is by being a cow. Or a man comes to the rescue. Both ways do my head in. I hate it. I have NEVER gotten angry with staff in an English speaking country. Japan? India? HK... Had to get nasty. :(
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
-1
tmarie
If that's the case Yuri needs to pipe down and stop looking a gift horse in the mouth! There are plenty of people in Okinawa without jobs and no income... Will only get worse if the bases are gone. Like I said before, there are many other pressing issues in Okinawa - level of education for example - that need more focus. Thing is, those don't get the politicians in the news....
Posted in: Okinawa governor, Nago mayor not happy with U.S. forces plan
0
tmarie
Back in English, damn it, in English!
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?